With rising costs and being “green” on everyone’s mind, many have increased their budgetary focus on email marketing as a way of contacting and cultivating their customers. However, not all customer email addresses are gathered at point of sale. Email Append is a process to increase coverage of this vital data point by finding email addresses using customer name and postal address. The following considerations will help you leverage this valuable process to grow your buyer file and get higher returns from your marketing strategies.
- Your Database: It’s best to submit only those records with which you have an existing business relationship. Forty-eight months or newer is a good rule of thumb, the more recent the data, the better the response.
- Match Logic: Choose the match level that’s most appropriate for your business. Individual matches include first name, last name, address, city, and zip. Household matches do not include the first name. Are you a mass-merchant doing business with a household, or a B2B marketer working with an individual professional?
- Suppression: If you’ve been using email marketing prior to this append you should have a file of people who have unsubscribed from your email list. Send that file to your append provider to be CAN-SPAM compliant and to avoid paying for any names that you already know cannot be mailed.
- Permission Request: The permission request is an introductory email that is sent to the people that were matched. It’s a required step used to remove any undeliverable addresses and offer recipients an opportunity to opt-out. It’s best to keep this message targeted at obtaining the permission of your customers to email them, but some marketers do choose to include an offer. Write the permission request in a communication style that your customers will be familiar with.
- After the Append: Start by mailing the newly acquired email addresses slowly and with messages tailored to introduce them to your email list and the benefits of staying subscribed. This will minimize opt-out rates and prevent fatigue.
- Measure Results: Track the success of your appended email data distinct from your house file. Given the inherent differences in how they were acquired, your appended file will behave differently than your organic file, and its standards for success will be correspondingly different. Watch key metrics including open rate and opt-out rate so you can react accordingly.
Post provided by TowerData, founded in 2001 as a leading provider of multi-channel data technology services worldwide, is an approved Cross Country Computer vendor for email append and hygiene. Take advantage of our volume discount to grow your marketing database by contacting us directly at Inquiry@CrossCountryComputer.com.
